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Damien

Restoration Shaman 6.2

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Guest Amika

Hey Vix,

 

Question for you re: Resto Shaman stat priority.  I agree with you that Mastery is the best secondary stat, but how did you come up with Multistrike being number two?  As far as I can tell, Multistrike is similar to Crit in that it grants extra throughput, but lacks the benefits of granting mana gains from Resurgence.

 

At level 100, 110 crit = 1% crit rating and 66 multistrike = 1% multistrike rating. Multistrike is cheaper, but also less effective since a critical heal doubles the value of the heal (heal size x 2.0), and a multistrike heal only multiplies it by 1.3, or 1.6 if you want to take into account that there are two chances to proc a multistrike.

 

For example, lets just say you have a 10K heal. If a crit procs, that heal = 10k x 2 = 20k. If both multistrikes proc, then you get 10K + 3K + 3K = 16k total.

 

What does this mean? The crit heal gave 10K extra throughput, and the multistrike heal gave 6K extra throughput. 6/10 = 0.6, and lo and behold, 66/110 (the stat values needed to obtain 1% multistrike and crit) also = 0.6. In terms of raw stat values, this means that crit and multistrike are completey equal in terms of throughput gained per point. However, crit has the added benefit of granting mana regen from resurgence, and multistrike does not.

 

In my book, stat priority is: Mastery > Crit > Multistrike > Haste.

 

Am I completely missing something about multistrike?

 

Thanks!

 

Amika <Might> Zul'jin

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Excellent question!

 

I don't disagree with your approach--in terms of an isolated investment, the gain per point would be equal. So, even basic intuition would suggest that with Multistrike providing no benefit to regen, Crit would be better because it increases Resurgence procs by some amount greater than zero.

 

But, there are a couple issues that arise with this line of thinking. First, it assumes sufficient time in which to cast the additional heal. It's a fair presumption, one that I don't think this is going to be an issue in Mythic raiding, but I bring it up because time is an inherent part of evaluating stat weights (and can significantly impact rotational stat evaluations). But, again, in an isolated environment, the worst case the two stats are equal; the best case is that Crit moves ahead.

 

The second, and the larger issue, is what happens when you start looking at Crit and Multistrike in a dependant environment. (This is similar to the interrelationship of Crit and Mastery that I went to such lengths to analyze back in Cataclysm). While you can invest all your stats in Crit and have zero Multistrike, the inverse isn't true; all players have base crit. So, all multistrikes have potential to crit, even if it is at the base value of 5%. Thus, the calculation of your average heal would have the following components:  Total Heal = Base Heal + Critical Heal + (Multistrike1 + Multistrike1 Crit) + (Multistrike2 + Multistrike2 Crit). This is a careful departure from the situation where you look at each investment in isolation. When I ran the calcs this way, Multistrike did pull ahead of Crit in terms of average throughput. Hamlet's HealerCalcs actually corroborates on the raw throughput--hooray!

 

Lastly, it's worth remembering that Resurgence gains are comparatively minor in Warlords. Whereas in Mists, CH crits returned a whopping 22% of the base cost of the spell, in WoD you're only going to see a 5% return on critical strike. (Healing Wave returns 40% of base; Healing Surge returns 12%). So, when you're looking at a "raid healing rotation" which is dominated by CH, your sustainability isn't going to be significantly impacted by Resurgence. The counter to this is, of course, that Crit will overly benefit your "conservative single target rotation", and allow you to essentially tread water while waiting for the next period of burst. 

 

TL;DNR: at the end of it all, the answer both Stoove and I were left with was: it's very, VERY close. Which is an incredibly heartening idea given that WoD is a world without reforging, because it means that you shouldn't be overly concerned if you have the option of upgrading a Crit piece with a Multistrike piece or vice versa. 

 

Stoove actually put together a great post on this topic recently as well: http://stoove.wordpress.com/2014/11/03/statlords-of-shamanor/. It's worth a read and explains, in good detail, how the current stat recommendations were derived.

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One thing I'd like to add is that the theorycraft community doesn't entirely seem to agree yet on the issued of Crit and Multistrike. Vixsin noted that Hamlet's Healercalcs spreadsheet agrees with both her and my own analysis, but Hamlet and Dayani have both said (on their podcast) that Multi and Crit are "mathematically the same", which is contrary to Vixsin's reasoning and my own published calculations.

 

So, although the matter is under discussion right now, that has actually caused us to inspect our stat recommendations much more carefully than we otherwise would have.

 

Haste is still an open topic as well. In terms of pure throughput it's quite superior to either Crit or Multi (and inferior to Mastery), but there are considerations to be made for mana spending which so far hasn't been accounted for in published work. This is because such a problem is "quite nontrivial", as scientists like to say, which means that you are unlikely ever to find a properly satisfying Ultimate Answer.

 

Ultimately, the stat priority we have recommended (and will revise in the approach to WoD) is extremely carefully considered in the full knowledge of these problems and will shift as and when the theorycraft changes direction.

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Guest dean

Not to mention the value of getting that casted heal out "quicker" regardless of throughput, more of a pvp thing but still as (almost impossible to measure) value in pve

 

For crit and mutistrike (ignoring mana regen) its safe to say because they are close and scale off each other the "right" answer will be to ballance them to some degree

 

That all said because mastery is no 1, Gems and enchants will probably go there, and we will probably prefer warforged, and gemmed and maybe even gear with terrciary stats before we need to even worry about choosing between crit and mastery

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Guest Amika

Oh, the power of math! Thank you very much Vixsin and Stoove for your responses. I also really enjoyed reading your "Statlords of Shamanor" writeup Stoove, although now my head hurts just a bit smile.png The time you have both taken to math these things out is greatly appreciated.

 

As a "touchyfeelycrafter", after taking all this into consideration, I like the idea of Mastery > Multistrike = Crit > Haste for the first tier of WoD. Personally, I'm placing Haste low on the priority list simply because of the inevitable HPM concerns for the first tier, when we all feel a little mana starved.  Haste is lovely if your mana regen can support it, but in a mana-conservative environment I think I'll lean towards the free throughput of the other secondary stats.

 

Finally, it certainly is reassuring to believe that no matter what combination of secondary stats get thrown our way, we'll be able to make good use of them.

 

Thank you once again for taking the time to respond!

 

Amika <Might> Zul'jin

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Responding to discussions like this is absolutely a pleasure, and thanks for your compliments!

 

I know that a lot of people who have tested raiding more rigorously than I have on the Beta are saying that Haste will be too low on their personal rating just for the mana concerns. I'm not sure whether I'm being optimistic here - perhaps I anticipate changing my rotation much more than those who playtested might already have.

 

Also, stay tuned for more maths which will try to take account of some of the mana issues we've discussed. :)

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the guide says wow_icon_spell_shaman_elementaloath.jpgAncestral Swiftness gives you an emergency heal if you combine it with wow_icon_spell_nature_healingwavelesser.Healing Wave. I would think it better to use wow_icon_spell_nature_healingway.jpgHealing Surge as it has more base healing power, and its free of mana cost.

 

also you can make wow_icon_ability_shaman_condensationtoteCloudburst Totem expire when you want it, if you don't have some other important totem up at the time with wow_icon_spell_shaman_totemrecall.jpgTotemic Recall. maybe you can add this as somebody might find it usefull to know.

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Guest Guest

Question: 

 

I haven't had a single Echo of Elements procc when using healing spells. Is it possible that the Skill only proccs of Damage-Skills?

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I haven't had a single Echo of Elements procc when using healing spells. Is it possible that the Skill only proccs of Damage-Skills?

 

EotE procs from healing spells just as much as it procs from damage. The only caveat is that you must be in combat to proc EotE, which is obviously not a problem with damage spells. :)

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Guest Arcarania

For me, Mr Robot is recommending Mark of Bleeding Hollow over Mark of Shadowmoon.  Have there been any changes, or is Mr Robot simply weighing stats differently?

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For me, Mr Robot is recommending Mark of Bleeding Hollow over Mark of Shadowmoon.  Have there been any changes, or is Mr Robot simply weighing stats differently?

 

Depends on how desparate for mana you are, and I don't have a feel for that in raids yet. AMR would be correct for throughput, but sub-optimal if you need the mana to sustain healing.

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Guest Ракторр

the guide says wow_icon_spell_shaman_elementaloath.jpgAncestral Swiftness gives you an emergency heal if you combine it with wow_icon_spell_nature_healingwavelesser.Healing Wave. I would think it better to use wow_icon_spell_nature_healingway.jpgHealing Surge as it has more base healing power, and its free of mana cost.

 

 

 

 

I absolutely agree I do not understand why in Hyde differently

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Guest Killinblow

The talents are outdated. Elemental Blast is a really good choice now, with 1000 spirit from 250 and 500 in a random stat. 

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Guest LTW

I'd like to ask about the new set pieces coming with BFR.

 

They have quite a high amount of multistrike mixed in them. Is there going to be a probable change in stat priority once the set bonuses come into effect? It seems like Blizzard is trying to push multistrike onto everything Shaman related.

 

To this moment I was able to run on 0 MS and 0 Vers, this will not be the case with the new gear.

 

Will the gear optimization just get harder? Or will we probably adapt to different stats?

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The talents are outdated. Elemental Blast is a really good choice now, with 1000 spirit from 250 and 500 in a random stat.

 

I updated the values, which I had forgotten to update when WoD was released.

 

I'd like to ask about the new set pieces coming with BFR.

 

They have quite a high amount of multistrike mixed in them. Is there going to be a probable change in stat priority once the set bonuses come into effect? It seems like Blizzard is trying to push multistrike onto everything Shaman related.

 

To this moment I was able to run on 0 MS and 0 Vers, this will not be the case with the new gear.

 

Will the gear optimization just get harder? Or will we probably adapt to different stats?

I'll let Stoove reply to that smile.png

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Guest Bule

Hmm. I can't really decide between Cloudburst Totem and High Tides. I have read several guides about that and I am still using Cloudburst Totem. Before we get our tier 17 set 4 bonus (then High Tides is the choice), it is a difficult to decide..

 

Currently I am not using much Chain Heal so I think Cloudburst is better choice, but I am not sure..

 

This guide's default choice is Cloudburst so I guess I will keep it for now..

 

Has there been any changes past month? I see this guide has not been updated for a while.

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I'd like to ask about the new set pieces coming with BFR.

 

They have quite a high amount of multistrike mixed in them. Is there going to be a probable change in stat priority once the set bonuses come into effect? It seems like Blizzard is trying to push multistrike onto everything Shaman related.

 

To this moment I was able to run on 0 MS and 0 Vers, this will not be the case with the new gear.

 

Will the gear optimization just get harder? Or will we probably adapt to different stats?

 

Here's my understanding of the BRF Tier gear: the additional casts of Chain Heal will not proc Multistrikes. So that would imply that Multistrike won't become overpowered due simply to the 2pc set bonus.

 

The second part of this is about set itemization; I don't think that Multistrike will get any *better* without a significant change implemented to our mechanics, which I think is unlikely. Mastery and Haste will still be our best throughput stats, but we might be forced into having a wider spread of stats (i.e. more Multistrike and Crit). I don't really see us changing our playstyle much in the face of different itemization, except for being slightly happier to heal people on high hp.

 

Hmm. I can't really decide between Cloudburst Totem and High Tides. I have read several guides about that and I am still using Cloudburst Totem. Before we get our tier 17 set 4 bonus (then High Tides is the choice), it is a difficult to decide..

 

Currently I am not using much Chain Heal so I think Cloudburst is better choice, but I am not sure..

 

This guide's default choice is Cloudburst so I guess I will keep it for now..

 

Has there been any changes past month? I see this guide has not been updated for a while.

 

Set bonuses aside, CBT and HT are roughly on par - I find it better to spec CBT by default and switch into HT for those fights where I can find a really good use for it. CBT is really such an efficient talent that I'd advise learning to use that over HT. Note also that you have to do quite a lot of Chain Heals in one fight for HT's throughput to start to outstrip CBT's - a number which I just can't afford at the moment.

 

The guide does not currently need to be updated as far as I know. Very little has changed since it was last updated.

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Question about T6 talents.

 

Your guide says to take primal elementalist unless you have mana problems. However, while you give a good description of Unleashed Fury, you don't say why to either never take it, or when it would be more useful than Primal Elementalist or Elemental Blast.

 

Why should I never take Unleashed Fury?

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Guest Leilebule

I don't think so Unleashed Fury would be better on any situation except when you need to do Chain Heal a lot (assuming you are also using High Tides) or big heal on someone with low hp. Primal Elementalist gives you a passive 10% healing done when you pop em out and Elemental Blast Spirit for mana regen.

 

What I think so far is the Imperator fight on heroic/mythic where Unleashed Fury along with Chain Heal/High Tides could be useful.

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Guest jakkob

It no longer affects healing rain. It provides less overall benefit than PE or EB.

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Guest Totem

Can you please update this guide? it still references siege of orgrimmar and from looking at the top resto shamans and how they heal, seems to be outdated

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The guide could use some serious updating, most of the justification for talents comes from SoO fights and at this point it's suggesting talents that most of the top tier resto shamans are disagreeing with. I'd say default Astral Shift, Windwalk Totem, Call of the Elements, Ancestral Swiftness, Rushing Streams (Conductivity for a handful of minimal movement fights), Elemental Blast, High Tide.

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Question about T6 talents.

 

Your guide says to take primal elementalist unless you have mana problems. However, while you give a good description of Unleashed Fury, you don't say why to either never take it, or when it would be more useful than Primal Elementalist or Elemental Blast.

 

Why should I never take Unleashed Fury?

 

It seems like this part wasn't update recently.

The most 'to-go' talent in tier 6 now is Elemental Blast due to spirit and secondaries buffs that it provides. 

You definitely can play with Unleashed Fury when taking CBT in tier 7. Crits from HS empowered with UF+UL charge the totem very nice. It is valuable for empowering HW too.

Maybe things will change with getting more tier bonuses and higher ilvl deeper in expansion, but PE is definitely not the best choice for now. It was back in MoP, but now you can hardly find resto shaman who prefer it over EB or UF.

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New Talent: Greater Alignment – Celestial Alignment lasts 40% longer. During Celestial Alignment, Solar Eclipse increases Nature damage done by an additional 5% and Lunar Eclipse increases Arcane damage done by an additional 5%. New Talent: Stellar Amplification – Starsurge increases the damage the target takes from your periodic effects and Shooting Stars for 5 seconds. Reapplying this effect extends its duration, up to 20 seconds. New Talent: Harmony of the Heavens – Starsurge or Starfall increase your current Eclipse’s Arcane or Nature damage bonus by an additional 1%, up to 5%. New Talent: Touch the Cosmos – Casting Wrath in an Eclipse has an 8% chance to make your next Starsurge free. Casting Starfire in an Eclipse has a 10% chance to make your next Starfall free. Umbral Embrace has been redesigned – Wrath and Starfire have a 20% chance to cause the next Wrath or Starfire you cast in Eclipse to become Astral and deal 100% additional damage. Now a 1 point talent. New Talent: Umbral Inspiration – Consuming Umbral Embrace increases the damage of your Moonfire, Sunfire, Shooting Stars, and Starfall by 20% for 5 seconds. Astral Smolder has been redesigned – Wrath and Starfire have a 45% chance to cause their targets to languish for an additional 80% of their damage dealt over 6 seconds. Astral Communion has been redesigned – Maximum Astral Power increased by 20. Entering Eclipse grants 12 Astral Power. Nature’s Grace has been redesigned – When Eclipse ends or when you enter combat, enter a Dreamstate, reducing the cast time of your next 2 Starfires or Wraths by 20% and increasing their damage by 50%. All ability damage increased by 6%. Wrath, Starfire, and Shooting Stars damage increased by an additional 15%. Wild Mushrooms damage increased by an additional 25%. Astral Power generation reduced: Wrath: 6 (was ? Starfire: 8 (was 10) New Moon: 10 (was 12) Half Moon: 20 (was 24) Full Moon: 40 (was 50) Fury of Elune: 40 / 2.5 per tick (was 48 / 3 per tick) Celestial Alignment duration reduced to 15 seconds (was 20 seconds). Incarnation: Chosen of Elune duration reduced to 20 seconds (was 30 seconds). Mastery: Astral Invocation value reduced by 17%. Aetherial Kindling now extends during of active Sunfires and Moonfires by 3 seconds (was 4 seconds). Orbital Strike damage reduced by 25%. Umbral Intensity now increases Starfire’s damage as well as its area-of-effect damage scaling – Solar Eclipse increases the damage of Wrath by an additional 20/40%. Lunar Eclipse increases the damage of Starfire by 20/40% and the damage it deals to nearby enemies by an additional 15/30%. Waning Twilight is now a 1 point talent increasing damage you deal to targets with 3 or more of your periodic effects by 6%. Balance of all Things now increases Critical Strike chance by 10/20%, decreasing by 1/2% every second. Denizen of the Dream damage increased by 50%. Friend of the Fae has been removed. Denizen of the Dream moved to Friend of the Fae’s location. Positions of Aetherial Kindling and Lunar Shrapnel swapped. Orbit Breaker and Sundered Firmament are now a choice node where Orbit Breaker was. Primodial Arcanic Pulsar has been removed. Feral Developer’s note: Our top goals for Feral Druid in The War Within are to slow down its rotation a little to make Energy usage more tactical and to bring more clarity to playing the spec. We’re also trying to restore more of Tiger Fury’s identity and excitement, and simplifying some talent functionality to free up more choice in where you spend points. Many of these changes will read as nerfs – the goal is to build a healthy rotation and talent balance and buff damage to make that rotation competitive. Learn more here 1. New Talent: Resourceful Hunter – Leech increased by 2%. Versatility increased by 2%. New Talent: Coiled to Spring – If you generate a combo point in excess of what you can store, your next Ferocious Bite or Primal Wrath deals 10% increased direct damage. Developer’s note: This will only trigger during Berserk if you generate a combo point in excess of five while you already have 3 stacks of Overflowing Power. New Talent: Savage Fury – Tiger’s Fury increases your Haste by 8% and Energy recovery rate by 20% for 6 seconds. Mastery: Razor Claws has been redesigned – Now increases damage of Cat Form bleed and other periodic abilities. Predator has been redesigned – No longer causes Tiger’s Fury’s cooldown to be reset when a target dies with one of your bleeds active. Tiger’s Fury lasts 5 additional seconds. Your combo point-generating abilities’ direct damage is increased by 40% of your Haste. Taste for Blood has been redesigned – No longer scales with number of bleeds on a target. Ferocious Bite damage increased by 15% and an additional 15% during Tiger’s Fury. Raging Fury has been redesigned – No longer increases Tiger’s Fury duration from spending combo points. Tiger’s Fury lasts 5 additional seconds. All ability damage increased by 8%. The direct damage of Shred, Rake, Swipe / Brutal Slash, and Thrash increased by an additional 10%. Berserk duration reduced to 15 seconds (was 20 seconds). Incarnation: Avatar of Ashamane duration reduced to 20 seconds (was 30 seconds). Berserk no longer increases the damage of Shred and Rake. It now increases all ability and auto-attack damage by 10%. Sabertooth now increases damage Ferocious Bite’s primary target takes from all of your Cat Form periodic damage by 3% per combo point spent for 4 seconds (instead of 5% damage dealt by all Rips on all targets). Tireless Energy now increases passive Energy generation by 8%/15% (was 10%/20%) and total Energy by 20/40 (was 30/60). Primal Wrath Energy cost increased to 30 and its direct damage increased by 50%. Tear Open Wounds now consumes 6 seconds of Rip damage during Berserk. Moonfire in Cat Form with Lunar Inspiration duration increased to 18 seconds and overall damage reduced by 10%. Moment of Clarity now increases the rate that Omen of Clarity triggers by 30% (was 50%). Berserk: Heart of the Lion now reduces Berserk’s cooldown by 60 seconds (was reduces cooldown by 0.5 seconds per combo point spent). Berserk: Frenzy now causes enemies to bleed for 135% of all direct damage dealt by combo point generating abilities (was 100%). Soul of the Forest restores 2 Energy per combo point spent (was 3 Energy). Apex Predator’s chance to trigger on a single target is reduced, but its chance to trigger in area-of-effect increases at a faster rate. The following talents have been removed: Dire Fixation Protective Growth Rampant Ferocity Relentless Predator Taste for Blood moved to Relentless Predator’s old location. Infected Wounds moved to Taste for Blood’s old location. Restoration Developer’s note: In The War Within, we’d like to reduce active keybinds, increase the base power of Rejuvenation, and offer some new Heart of the Wild gameplay. With the removal of Adaptive Swarm, we’re opting to replace it with some new Heart of the Wild synergy that both increases the uptime of the effect and enables the Druid to focus on the hybrid gameplay further for its duration. Learn more here 1. New Talent: Dream of Cenarius – While Heart of the Wild is active, Wrath and Shred transfer 150% of their damage and Starfire and Swipe transfer 100% of their damage into healing onto a nearby ally. New Talent: Call of the Elder Druid – When you shift into a combat shapeshift form or cast Starsurge, you gain Heart of the Wild for 10 seconds, once every 60 seconds. New Talent: Thriving Vegetation – Rejuvenation instantly heals for 15/30% of its periodic healing and Regrowth’s duration is increased by 3/6 seconds. New Talent: Prosperity – Swiftmend now has 2 charges. Rejuvenation healing increased by 30%. Grove Guardian’s healing reduced by 15%. Wild Synthesis Wild Growth healing reduced by 15%. Verdant Infusion now extends the duration of heal over time effects by 8 seconds (was 12 seconds). Nurturing Dormancy is now capped at 4 second extension (was 6 seconds). Abundance now increases the Critical Strike chance of Regrowth by 8% and decreases its mana cost by 8% per stack (was 5%). Flourish has moved to a choice node with Photosynthesis Invigorate has moved to a choice node with Embrace of the Dream. Soul of the Forest and Heart of the Wild added to Personal Resource Display. The following talents have been removed: Adaptive Swarm Unbridled Swarm Luxuriant Soil EVOKER Evokers now start at level 10 (was level 58). Evokers now unlock the talent pane immediately after choosing a specialization in the Forbidden Reach, and they no longer learn “temporary” talents as they complete the Forbidden Reach experience. Several base spells that were previously learned at level 58 are now learned at level 10. Mass Return is now learned at level 38. Fury of the Aspects is now learned at level 48. Devastation Developer’s note: Devastation Evoker can generate very high threat at the start of a pull due to a combination of their Mastery: Giantkiller and the burstiness of spells like Fire Breath and Pyre (particularly when used with Dragonrage and Charged Blast). As a result, we’re reducing the threat these spells generate. Fire Breath threat generated reduced by 50%. Pyre threat generated reduced by 30%. Preservation Developer’s note: In this update, our goal was to incorporate Lifespark (Season 1 set bonus for Preservation) into the talent tree and expand talent options by improving the pathing of the tree. We also wanted to keep the flavor of the left side of the tree being Green, the middle being Red, and the right being Bronze. New Talent: Lifespark – Reversion healing has a chance to grant you instant cast Living Flame and increase its damage/healing by 50%. New Talent: Titan’s Gift – Essence Burst increases the effectiveness of your next Essence ability by 25%. Life-Giver’s Flame is now a 1 point node (was 2). Its position has been relocated at the bottom middle of the tree. Grace Period is now a 1 point node (was 2). Its position has been relocated as a capstone below Timeless Magic. Font of Magic and Power Nexus have been relocated to the middle center of the tree. Cycle of Life has been relocated as a capstone at the bottom left of the tree. MONK Developer’s note: Our main goals for the Monk Class tree are to introduce more optionality, refresh the cappers, and add a few new pieces of utility (such as an Enrage dispel), while still cutting down on overall keybind requirements. To accomplish this, we’ve added choice nodes to most active options that offer a passive option or changed pathing to allow more skipping of these spells. More details can be found in the Feedback: Monk Updates 1 thread. New Talent: Crashing Momentum – Targets you Roll through are snared by 40% for 5 seconds. New Talent: Bounding Agility – Roll and Chi Torpedo travel a small distance further. New Talent: Wind’s Reach – The range of Disable is increased by 5 yards. The duration of Crashing Momentum is increased by 3 seconds and its snare now reduces movement speed by an additional 20%. New Talent: Ancient Arts – Reduces the cooldown of Paralysis by 8/15 seconds and the cooldown of Leg Sweep by 5/10 seconds. New Talent: Jade Walk – While out of combat, your movement speed is increased by 15%. New Talent: Pressure Points – Paralysis now removes all Enrage effects from its target. New Talent: Energy Transfer – Successfully interrupting an enemy reduces the cooldown of Paralysis and Roll by 5 seconds. New Talent: Quick Footed – The duration of snare effects on you is reduced by 20%. New Talent: Spirit’s Essence: Transcendence – Transfer snares targets within 10 yards by 70% for 4 seconds when cast. New Talent: Peace and Prosperity – Reduces the cooldown of Ring of Peace by 5 seconds and Song of Chi-Ji’s cast time is reduced by 0.5 seconds. New Talent: Swift Art – Roll removes a snare effect once every 30 seconds. New Talent: Celestial Determination – While your celestial is active, you cannot be slowed below 90% normal movement speed. New Talent: Martial Instincts – Increases your Physical damage done by 2/4% and Avoidance increased by 2/4%. New Talent: Healing Winds: Transcendence – Transfer immediately heals you for 15% of your maximum health. New Talent: Chi Proficiency – Magical damage done increased by 2/4% and healing done increased by 2/4%. New Talent: Lighter Than Air – Roll causes you to become lighter than air, allowing you to double jump to dash forward a short distance once within 5 seconds. New Talent: Flow of Chi – You gain a bonus effect based on your current health. Above 90% health: Movement speed increased by 5%. This bonus stacks with similar effects. Between 90% and 35% health: Damage taken reduced by 5%. Below 35% health: Healing received increased by 10%. New Talent: Rushing Reflexes – Your heightened reflexes allow you to react swiftly to the presence of enemies, causing you to quickly lunge to the nearest enemy within 10 yards after you Roll. New Talent: Transcendence: Linked Spirits – Transcendence now tethers your spirit onto an ally for 1 hour. Use Transcendence: Transfer to teleport to your ally’s location. Tiger Tail Sweep has been redesigned – Increases the range of Leg Sweep by 4 yards. Now a 1 point talent. Elusive Mists has been redesigned – Reduces all damage taken by you and your target while channeling Soothing Mists by 6%. Now a 1 point talent. Chi Wave has been redesigned – Every 15 seconds, your next Rising Sun Kick or Vivify releases a wave of Chi energy that flows through friends and foes, dealing Nature damage or healing. Bounces up to 7 times to targets within 25 yards. Summon White Tiger Statue has been redesigned – Invoking Xuen, the White Tiger also spawns a White Tiger Statue at your location that pulses damage to all enemies ever 2 seconds for 10 seconds. Ironshell Brew has been redesigned – Increases your maximum health by an additional 10% and your damage taken is reduced by an additional 10% while Fortifying Brew is active. Escape from Reality has been redesigned – After you use Transcendence: Transfer, you can use Transcendence: Transfer again within 10 seconds, ignoring its cooldown. Fatal Touch has been redesigned – Touch of Death increases your damage by 5% for 30 seconds after being cast and its cooldown is reduced by 90 seconds. Now a 1 point talent. Clash has moved to the Class tree. Improved Roll is now baseline for all Monk specializations. Fortifying Brew cooldown is now 2 minutes for Mistweaver and Windwalker. Many talents have changed positions. The following talents are now 1 point: Save Them All Bounce Back Resonant Fists Grace of the Crane Fast Feet The following talents have been removed: Improved Roll Improved Vivify Ferocity of Xuen Hasty Provocation Eye of the Tiger Close to Heart Generous Pour Resonant Fists Dampen Harm and Summon Black Ox Statue have been removed for Windwalker and Mistweaver. Summon White Tiger Statue and Summon Jade Serpent Statue have been removed for Brewmaster and Windwalker. Mistweaver Developer’s note: Mistweaver is seeing a few updates including their class 2-set Chi Harmony bonus and the removal of Essence Font. We’re also adding a talent to help Mistweavers who are focused on melee to gain more value out of their Mastery stat. Essence Font’s removal will have a few outcomes, the most important of which to address will be melee Mistweavers in raid healing scenarios.
      We’re hoping the removal of Clouded Focus and consequent tuning of Vivify and Enveloping Mist will help Soothing Mist fill the gaps for them, but there are some realities around planting and casting that may feel worse than Essence Font did. Our goal here is to make the risk/reward feel worth it here through tuning, but we’re going to continue looking at this as we iterate in The War Within. Learn more here. New Talent: Crane Style – Rising Sun Kick now kicks up a Gust of Mist to heal 2 allies within 40 yards. Spinning Crane Kick and Blackout Kick have a chance to kick up a Gust of Mist to heal 1 ally within 40 yards. New Talent: Deep Clarity – After you fully consume Thunder Focus Tea, your next Vivify triggers Zen Pulse. New Talent: Chi Harmony – Renewing Mist applies Chi Harmony to its initial target, increasing their healing taken from you by 50% for 8 seconds. Zen Pulse has been redesigned – Renewing Mist’s heal over time has a chance to cause your next Vivify to also trigger a Zen Pulse on its target and all allies with Renewing Mist, healing them increased by 5% per Renewing Mist active, up to 50%. Jadefire Stomp no longer casts Essence Font, its cooldown is reduced to 15 seconds (was 20 seconds), and now casts Gusts of Mist on each ally healed. Gust of Mist healing increased by 20%. Jade Bond now increases the healing of Yu’lon’s Soothing Breath by 300% (was 40%). Invigorating Mist healing increased by 8%. Vivify healing increased by 9%. Vivify now costs 3% base mana (was 3.4%). Developer’s note: We are increasing the effectiveness of baseline Vivify with the removal of the Clouded Focus talent. Burst of Life’s icon has been changed. Various talents have changed locations. The following talents have been removed: Essence Font Upwelling Font of Life Clouded Focus Windwalker Developer’s note: Our updates for Windwalker in The War Within are intended to address a few issues the specialization struggled with throughout Dragonflight. These points of focus for us were the power levels of the Haste and Mastery stats falling behind other options, Jadefire Stomp’s usability, and the Touch of Death gameplay focus. Other areas that we are also looking at are resource bloat, evening out their rate of auto-attacks, and adding more pronounced thematics through both gameplay and visuals. Learn more here 3. New Talent: Acclamation – Rising Sun Kick increases the damage your target receives from you by 4% for 12 seconds. Multiple instances may overlap. New Talent: Flurry of Xuen – Your spells and abilities have a chance to activate Flurry of Xuen, unleashing a barrage of deadly swipes to deal Physical damage in a 10 yard cone. Invoking Xuen, the White Tiger activates Flurry of Xuen. Developer’s note: This ability is still being implemented and will be added in the subsequent Public Alpha build. New Talent: Martial Mixture – Blackout Kick increases the damage of your next Tiger Palm by 10%, stacking up to 12 times. New Talent: Courageous Impulse – The Blackout Kick! effect also increases the damage of your next Blackout Kick by 175%. New Talent: Energy Burst – When you consume Blackout Kick!, you have a 100% chance to generate 1 Chi. New Talent: Gale Force – Targets struck by Strike of the Windlord are sent reeling from its impact, causing them to become vulnerable to your attacks for 10 seconds. Your abilities have a 100% chance to affect the target a second time at 10% effectiveness as Nature damage while they are vulnerable. New Talent: Dual Threat – Your auto attacks have a 20% chance to instead kick your target dealing Physical damage and increasing your damage dealt by 5% for 5 seconds. New Talent: Momentum Boost – Fists of Fury’s damage is increased by 100% of your Haste and Fists of Fury does 10% more damage each time it deals damage, resetting when Fists of Fury ends. Your auto attack speed is increased by 60% for 8 sec after Fists of Fury ends. New Talent: Ordered Elements – During Storm, Earth, and Fire, Rising Sun Kick reduces Chi costs by 1 for 5 seconds and Blackout Kick reduces the cooldown of affected abilities by an additional 1 second. Activating Storm, Earth, and Fire resets the remaining cooldown of Rising Sun Kick and grants 2 Chi. New Talent: Sequenced Strikes – You have a 100% chance to gain Blackout Kick! after consuming Dance of Chi-Ji. New Talent: Revolving Whirl – Whirling Dragon Punch has a 100% chance to activate Dance of Chi-Ji. New Talent: Knowledge of the Broken Temple – Whirling Dragon Punch grants 4 stacks of Teachings of the Monastery and its damage is increased by 20%. Teachings of the Monastery can now stack up to 8 times. New Talent: Singularly Focused Jade – Jadefire Stomp’s initial hit now strikes 1 target, but deals 500% increased damage and healing. New Talent: Communion With Wind – Strike of the Windlord’s cooldown is reduced by 10 seconds and its damage is increased by 20%. New Talent: Brawler’s Intensity – The cooldown of Rising Sun Kick is reduced by 1 second and the damage of Blackout Kick is increased by 10%. New Talent: Combat Wisdom – Every 15 seconds, your next Tiger Palm also casts Expel Harm and deals 100% additional damage. Replaces Expel Harm. Glory of Dawn has been redesigned – Rising Sun Kick has a chance equal to 100% of your Haste to trigger a second time, dealing Physical damage and restoring 1 Chi. Rushing Jade Wind has been redesigned – Strike of the Windlord applies Mark of the Crane to all enemies struck and summons a whirling tornado around you, causing Physical damage over 8 seconds to all enemies within 8 yards. Jadefire Stomp has been redesigned – Strike the Ground fiercely to expose a path of jade for 30 seconds that increases your movement speed by 20% while inside, dealing Nature damage to up to 5 enemies and restores health to up to 5 allies within 30 yards caught in the path. Up to 5 enemies caught in the path suffer additional damage. Inner Peace has been redesigned – Increases maximum Energy by 30. Tiger Palm’s energy cost reduced by 5. Mastery: Combo Strikes is now 20% more effective. Touch of Karma is now baseline for Windwalker. Whirling Dragon Punch now deals additional damage to the first target struck and its damage is reduced beyond 5 targets. Expel Harm no longer generates Chi for Windwalker. Flying Serpent Kick no longer deals damage. Mark of the Crane now only applies to the primary target of each strike. Teachings of the Monastery now stacks up to 4 times (was 3). Thunderfist now always generates 4 stacks of Thunderfist and additional stacks of Thunderfist per each additional target struck. Transfer the Power no longer stacks from Rushing Jade Wind, but now stacks from Spinning Crane Kick. Crane Vortex now increases the damage of Spinning Crane Kick by 15/30% (was 10/20%). Spinning Crane Kick now cancels from using other spells or abilities, but no longer prevents auto-attacks for its duration. Empowered Tiger Lightning’s effect is now baseline for Xuen, the White Tiger. Invoker’s Delight now increases Haste by 20% while active (was 33%). Xuen’s Bond now decreases the cooldown of Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger by 0.2 seconds (was 0.1 second) per Combo Strikes activation. Dance of Chi-Ji’s chance to trigger reduced by 25%. Tiger Palm Energy cost increased to 60 (was 50). Chi Burst no longer generates Chi for Windwalker. Many talents have changed positions. Drinking Horn Cover and Spiritual Focus are now a choice node together. The following talents are now 1 point: Touch of the Tiger Hardened Soles The following talents have been removed: Power Strikes Fatal Flying Guillotine Skyreach Serenity Forbidden Technique Widening Whirl Bonedust Brew Attenuation Dust in the Wind Flashing Fists Open Palm PALADIN Multiple applications of Greater Judgment may overlap. This also functions with Retribution’s multiple stack application. Glyph of the Luminous Charger now only works while Crusader Aura is active. Holy Developer’s note: Our goals are to replace Light of the Martyr with a passive spell but keep the same thematic sacrifice theme, move more of their throughput from Beacon of Light into their baseline spells, and redesign Blessing of Summer to feel more specific to their role. Learn more here. New Talent: Bestow Light – Light of the Martyr’s health threshold is reduced to 70% and increases Holy Shock’s healing by an additional 5% for every 5 seconds Light of the Martyr is active, stacking up to 3 times. While below 70% health, the light urgently heals you every 1 second. Light of the Martyr has been redesigned – While above 80% health, Holy Shock’s healing is increased 20%, but creates a heal absorb on you for 30% of the amount healed that prevents Beacon of Light from healing you until it has dissipated. Blessing of Summer has been redesigned – Bless an ally for 30 seconds, causing 20% of all healing to be converted into damage onto a nearby enemy and 10% of all damage to be converted into healing onto an injured ally within 40 yards. Beacon of Light now transfers 15% of healing done (was 25%). Barrier Faith now transfers 20% of healing into its absorb (was 25%). Word of Glory healing increased by 25%. Light of Dawn healing increased by 20%. Holy Shock healing increased by 20%. Tyr’s Deliverance healing decreased by 15%. Sacrifice of the Just now reduces the cooldown of Blessing of Sacrifice by 15 seconds (was 60 seconds). Blessing of Sacrifice now transfers 30% of damage taken (was 20%) for Holy. Fixed an issue that caused Tyr’s Deliverance’s healing to not be affected by some modifiers, such as Avenging Wrath. Barrier Faith is now on a choice node with Holy Prism. Tyr’s Deliverance and Reclamation have changed positions in the tree. Light’s Hammer has been removed. Retribution Developer’s note: Our initial goal is to explore how we can make secondary stats more appealing to Retribution, to allow a natural progression of scaling throughout an expansion. Due to the nature of many talents offering guaranteed critical hits, it was difficult for us to make Critical Strike a stat that felt valuable. To address this, we’ve reworked and rebalanced these talents to not automatically crit. They will instead gain value when you do crit, such as increasing their critical strike damage.
      One of the sources of frustration we’ve seen when it comes to the Retribution spec tree is that there is a large amount of friction between Single Target and AoE builds, leaving very little wiggle room for any sort of hybridization. We’ve done some restructuring to alleviate some of this tension, to create more room to explore hybrid type builds for when the scenarios might call for it. Learn more here 2. New Talent: Burn to Ash – When Truth’s Wake critically strikes, its duration is extended by 2 seconds. Your other damage over time effects deal 30% increased damage to targets affected by Truth’s Wake. Righteous Cause has been redesigned – Each Holy Power spent has a 6% chance to reset the cooldown of Blade of Justice. Art of War has been redesigned – Your auto attacks have a 20% chance to reset the cooldown of Blade of Justice. Critical strikes increase this chance by an additional 10%. Divine Hammer has been redesigned – Divine Hammers spin around you, consuming a Holy Power to strike enemies within 8 yards for Radiant damage every 2.2 seconds. While active, your Holy Power generating abilities recharge 75% faster, and increase the rate at which Divine Hammer strikes by 15% when they are cast. Deals reduced damage beyond 8 targets. Now a 2 min cooldown. Damage increased by 300%. Divine Hammer base periodic decreased to 2.2 seconds (was 3 seconds) Period scales with Haste. Final Reckoning has been redesigned – Now increases the damage taken from your single target Holy Power spenders by 30%. Increases the damage taken from your other Holy Power spenders by 15%. Vengeful Wrath has been redesigned – Hammer of Wrath deals 50% increased damage to enemies below 35% health. Vanguard of Justice has been redesigned – Templar’s Verdict and Divine Storm cost 1 additional Holy Power and deal 20% increased damage. Templar Strikes has been redesigned: Charge cooldown increased by 15%. Templar Slash, 2nd part of combo, overrides Templar Strike for 5 seconds (was 4 seconds). Crusader Strike becomes a 2-part combo: Templar Strike slashes an enemy for damage and gets replaced by Templar Slash for 5 seconds. Templar Slash strikes an enemy for damage, and burns them for 50% of the damage dealt over 4 seconds. Truth’s Wake effect is now added to Wake of Ashes baseline. Highlord’s Judgment has been renamed to Highlord’s Wrath. Mastery: Hand of Light has been renamed to Mastery: Highlord’s Judgment – Now also causes Judgment to have a chance to blast the target with the Light, dealing Holy damage. Highlord’s Wrath has been redesigned – Mastery: Highlord’s Judgment is 50/100% more effective on Judgment and Hammer of Wrath. Judgment applies an additional stack of Greater Judgment if it is known. Adjudication has been redesigned – Critical Strike damage of your abilities increased by 5% and Hammer of Wrath also has a chance to cast Highlord’s Judgment. Blades of Light has been redesigned – Crusader Strike, Judgment, Hammer of Wrath, and damaging single target Holy Power abilities now deal Holystrike damage and your abilities that deal Holystrike damage deal 5% increased damage. Divine Arbiter now has an additional effect – Highlord’s Judgment and Holystrike damage abilities grant you a stack of Divine Arbiter. Searing Light now has an additional effect – Highlord’s Judgment and Radiant damage abilities have a chance to call down and explosion of Holy Fire. Blessed Hammer from Adjudication now spawns from the target of your Hammer of Wrath. Execution Sentence now causes the enemy to suffer 20% of the damage dealt during its time after it expires (was 30%). Execution Sentence damage no longer counts as a damage over time effect. WARRIOR Developer’s note: The Warrior class talent tree has been significantly reorganized to allow for more player choice and build diversity in Warrior builds, as well as improve access to utility abilities like Storm Bolt and Shockwave. Rage generation for all Warrior specs in Dragonflight has been higher than we’re happy with so we’ve removed or reduced the power of several Rage-generating effects. With tuning, this will introduce more tactical gameplay around when to use Rage spenders and make those spenders more impactful. More details can be found in the Feedback: Warrior Updates 1 thread. Significant re-arrangement of many talents on the Warrior tree. Berserker Rage now auto-learned at level 12. Thunder Clap base Rage cost reduced to 20 (was 30). Slam damage normalized across all specializations (Arms-only Slam damage bonus removed), and damage increased by 200%. Blood and Thunder no longer increases Rage cost or damage of Thunder Clap. Crackling Thunder also increases damage of Thunder Clap by 10%. Frothing Berserker now refunds 10% Rage for Arms and Fury, and 25% Rage for Protection. Shockwave no longer generates Rage on cast. Champion’s Spear generates 10 Rage on cast (was 20). Thunderous Roar no longer generates Rage on cast. Thunderous Words now causes Thunderous Roar’s Bleed effect to increase damage targets take from all the Warrior’s bleed effects, rather than passively increasing it all the time. The following talents have been removed: Titanic Throw Sonic Boom Arms Developer’s note: In Dragonflight, Arms Warriors were most impacted by Rage over-generation, and combined with Arms having several mechanics that interact with Rage spend (Tactician, Anger Management, and Test of Might) led to certain builds dominating for most of the expansion and led to Arms rotation being overwhelmed by ability resets. To address this, in The War Within, Arms is receiving significant Rage generation and Rage cost adjustments as to make Rage management interesting for Arms. Many Arms talents have also seen significant changes, with the aim to give Arms Warriors more choices for their builds and rotation based on their preferences and the content they are playing, as well as more control over how and when they generate additional Rage. Learn more here. Moderate re-arrangement of several talents on the Arms tree. New Talent: Finishing Blows – Overpower generates 8 Rage when used on a target below 35% health. Barbaric Training has been redesigned for Arms – Now grants 20% damage and 10% critical damage to Slam and Whirlwind. Storm of Swords has been redesigned – Now grants Whirlwind a 30% chance to make your next Whirlwind cost 100% less Rage. Rage generated from auto-attacks reduced by 16%. Whirlwind base Rage cost reduced to 20 (was 30). Rend base Rage cost reduced to 20 (was 30). Ignore Pain Rage cost reduced to 20 (was 40). Cleave damage increased by 5%. Whirlwind damage reduced by 33%. Collateral Damage’s damage bonus now applies to Cleave as well as Whirlwind. Unhinged now will cast Mortal Strike on your target if valid, falling back to a random target. Warlord’s Torment no longer triggers from Colossus Smash. Duration of Recklessness buff increased by 50% and bonus Rage generation reduced to 25% (was 100%). In for the Kill’s Haste bonus now lasts as long as Colossus Smash does. Improved Overpower increases number of Overpower charges by 1. Dreadnaught no longer increases number of Overpower charges. Strength of Arms no longer causes Overpower to generates 8 Rage when used on a target below 35% health. Tactician chance to reset cooldown of Overpower per Rage spent reduced to 1% (was 1.3%). Deft Experience increase to Tactician’s chance to reset cooldown of Overpower per Rage spent reduced to 0.5% (was 0.6%). Valor in Victory’s Versatility bonus increased to 2% (was 1%). Battlelord no longer generates Rage when triggered. Skullsplitter now accelerates Rend’s Bleed baseline. Ravager is now a choice node with Bladestorm. All existing Bladestorm sub-talents updated to work with both Ravager and Bladestorm. Bladestorm no longer generates Rage on cast. The following talents have been removed: Tide of Blood Reaping Swings Fury Developer’s note: In Dragonflight, the Fury talent tree allowed for players to specialize heavily in either Raging Blow or Bloodthirst, to the point of eliminating one or the other from their rotation. We think Fury works best when all the core rotational abilities see regular use, so we have made several changes to the Fury tree and abilities to ensure that both Raging Blow and Bloodthirst remain valuable for Fury Warriors in all builds, while maintaining build choice and rotational diversity for Fury Warriors with the return of Bladestorm to the Fury tree and the addition of a choice of Enrage effects. Learn more here 1. Fury Warriors now learn Defensive Stance by default. Moderate re-arrangement of several talents on the Fury tree. New Talent: Powerful Enrage: Enrage increases the damage your abilities deal by an additional 15% and Enrage’s duration is increased by 1 second. On a choice node with Frenzied Enrage. Bladestorm is now a choice node with Ravager. All existing Ravager sub-talents updated to work with both Ravager and Bladestorm. Wrath and Fury now increases the chance for Improved Raging Blow to reset Raging Blow’s cooldown by 10% while Enraged. Deft Experience no longer reduces Bloodthirst’s cooldown, instead it now increases Bloodthirst’s chance to trigger Enrage by 2% per point. Tenderize no longer increases the duration of Enrage. Frenzied Flurry has been removed, its effects have been added to Single-Minded Fury. The following talents have been removed: Raging Armaments Annihilator Storm of Swords Developer’s note: Annihilator and Sword of Swords provided an option for Fury players who wanted a lower “actions per minute” playstyle. However, we’re not happy with how they changed which abilities warriors used in their rotations. We are instead providing Powerful Enrage as a new option for a slower playstyle that synergizes with Fury’s rotation and flavor. Protection Whirlwind base Rage cost reduced to 20 (was 30). Whirlwind damage reduced by 33%. Rend base Rage cost reduced to 20 (was 30). DYNAMIC FLIGHT
      440+ Flying Mounts will feature Dynamic Flight active abilities, faster speeds, and new animations in The War Within. Known Issue: Dragonriding talent panel is not available outside of Dragon Isles. To access the talents, paste this command into the chat box: /run DragonridingPanelSkillsButtonMixin:OnClick() ITEMS
      The item levels of leveling gear have been adjusted to be rewarded at an appropriate item level through level 70. Developer’s note: With this adjustment the leveling content should feel easier for all players as the items being rewarded will be a higher item level. All leveling items will follow this high item level cadence except for heirlooms. Heirlooms still have the advantage of increasing their item level as the wielder levels. In general, this should make leveling a more fluid and pleasant experience! The sell value of the Elegant Canvas Brush has been reduced to 100 gold. PLAYER VERSUS PLAYER
      DRUID Call of the Elder Druid has been removed from PvP talents and is now a Restoration Druid talent. PALADIN Holy Barrier Faith is now 50% more effective in PvP combat (was 100%). PROFESSIONS
      Developer’s note: We added Inspiration in Dragonflight to try and capture the fantasy of critical hits while crafting. If you weren’t quite capped out on your gear and specializations for a given craft, or if you weren’t using max quality reagents to guarantee that max quality item, Inspiration was a way to get that lucky crit. It could save you some money (by using lower-quality reagents) and you could craft a better item than you would otherwise.
      That was the hope at least, but it ended up (understandably) becoming a situation where crafters take this luck-based system, tell their customers that they would recraft an item an indeterminate number of times, and summarily charge a specific price per recraft until their Inspiration struck. So, in The War Within, we’re removing Inspiration. In its place, we have a new ability for crafters to utilize: Concentration and a new stat: Ingenuity. Learn more about this change in the Professions Update: Concentration in The War Within feedback thread. New Ability: Concentration – Concentration is a resource that you have a separate pool of per crafting profession. It represents your ability to heavily focus on your recipes and exceed your normal capabilities. You choose when you want to Concentrate using a button within the crafting window, empowering your next craft(s). Doing so will cause the craft to automatically reach the next level of quality, no questions asked. New Stat: Ingenuity – You have a chance to have an ingenious breakthrough when you Concentrate on a craft, refunding all Concentration spent. ALCHEMY Alchemy is in a near-complete state, beyond some polish and tuning work that will likely happen in broad strokes across all professions. Most, if not all recipes should be able to be crafted and utilized, and the specialization tree should be largely reflective of the final experience; all subject to feedback of course. Your good friend Instructaur and his cohort can supply you with the training and materials needed to experiment, and the items you make should be functional and ready for testing. Some additional notes: Phials have been rebranded to be profession effects only, retaining the 30m extendable duration. Flasks make a return with 1h durations! As a quality of life bonus, you can now have phials and flasks active at the same time. Experimentation has been carried forward from Dragonflight but with some adjustments in effort to mitigate frustration while keeping with the theme. You now select which herb to experiment with, and can only discover recipes that utilize that particular herb. Experimentation now has two forms: A repeatable version that you can do with short lockouts (which can be bypassed with Formulated Courage), and a time-gated one that boasts a much higher chance at recipe discoveries. Transmutation has been significantly expanded with a system called Thaumaturgy. This is a side component of Alchemy that boasts extra complexity which allows you to regularly transmute a variety of reagents found on Khaz Algar into other forms. While this process is highly destructive, specializations and clever choices in your inputs will ultimately bring you closer to transmuting Blasphemite, the elusive and highly coveted meta gem that is sure to catch the eye of aspiring Jewelcrafting entrepreneurs. Please take a look at the Thaumaturgy specialization tab and experiment with this feature with and without specializations and let us know how it feels! Specializations now focus heavily on the herbs of Khaz Algar, so it is wise to evaluate the recipe list to determine which recipes appeal to you the most. Specializations for all herbs on a recipe contribute to the final rolls associated with them. As a reminder, recipe difficulty tuning will happen in a later pass but you can nonetheless engage with this mechanic to observe their impact on crafts. BLACKSMITHING Specializations are in and ready for players to dissect! Developer’s note: While the hookups aren’t fully implemented, I’m hoping the Everburning Forge Specialization catches player’s attention as a way to inject a helping of profession stats deterministically. ENCHANTING In this Alpha build, Enchanting has been enabled and can be trained by Professor Instructaur in Orgrimmar and Stormwind. Dragonflight enchantments worked well to provide players with choices and customization, so many of the available options will look familiar in The War Within. There is a new host of weapon enchants available, as well as the new Cursed ring enchants as selectable options. Weapon Oils have also made a return, and Enchanting has an additional set of fun consumables to market to other players! The vast majority of the enchants have been implemented, but some of them are still in progress. Developer’s note: None of the enchants have been tuned yet, a baseline tuning will be done in the near future. Some of the specializations include: Designated Disenchanter Master your fundamental disenchanting rituals, maximizing the quality of reagents you create when destroying items. You will gain +1 Skill per point in this Specialization when disenchanting. Supplementary Shattering Learn the art of shattering the magical essences of Khaz Algar, temporarily empowering your Resourcefulness, Multicraft, and Ingenuity. Additionally, your studies will grant you +1 Ingenuity per point in this Specialization. FISHING In this alpha build, the waters around Khaz Algar are populated with a single fish while we worked out a few updates to the ecosystem. However, fellow Anglers will notice a change in their Fishing Journal, namely Fishing Accessories! Your existing Fishing Gear from the past will lose all Fishing stats and converting them to Fishing Accessories will permanently exchange the combat stats for the proper Fishing-related bonuses. Developer’s note: We’re strictly looking out for any friction with this conversion, items we might have missed, or critical issues to fix before this is fully live. HERBALISM In this Alpha build, Herbalism has been enabled and can be trained by Professor Instructaur in Orgrimmar and Stormwind. Specializations for herbalism have been fully implemented, and in addition to some of the fan favorites, we also have some new abilities and bonuses that you can specialize into. Finally, herbs are growing all over the Isle of Dorn, including ones that have been affected by the magics present on Khaz Algar. As always, we appreciate your time and feedback! The base idea behind Herbalism specializations in The War Within is the same as Dragonflight, but there have been changes and additions to some of the bonuses. The Botany specialization now has a Mulching sub-specialization, which allows you to make potent magical mulch and learn to utilize your Green Thumb. Mulching allows you to consume some of the common herb, Mycobloom, to make a consumable Mulch that gives you a large Finesse bonus to the next herb you gather. Green Thumb, also learned from the Mulching tree, is an activatable cooldown that doubles the amount of herbs you receive from the next herb you gather. JEWELCRAFTING Dragonflight Jewelcrafters will feel right at home with the updates in War Within! A familiar lineup of recipes await your discovery, but with a variety of new cantrips and an updated set of gems. We felt that Jewelcrafting’s structure, particularly its vast array of gem choices, fit well under the new profession system and wanted bring that with us into the new expansion. Item quality has been removed from raw gems and there is only one tier instead of two. Enjoy the reclaimed inventory space! The same lineup of gem options and their associated stats has been carried forward. For reference: Amber: Stamina Emerald: Haste Onyx: Mastery Ruby: Critical Strike Sapphire: Versatility Weighted hybrid combinations of all of the above! Ordinary hybrid gem cuts are now entirely sourced through Specializations rather than distributed across various parts of the game, in any order you choose. Knowing your customers and the gaps in the market is critical for maximizing your profits – but eventually all invested Jewelcrafters will be able to acquire all of the gems as usual. LEATHERWORKING Leatherworkers, your profession is available to be trained by Professor Instructaur in Orgrimmar and Stormwind! The general structure of Leatherworking remains the same as in Dragonflight, crafting a variety of armor pieces for both Leather and Mail wearers. Leatherworkers will also find that they have a new market in reagents with the ability to craft Weapon Grip Wraps and Armor Banding that is used in the high-level crafts of other Professions. We’ve also removed the specialization that granted general Skill across the board, so it should be clearer what specializations you need to focus on if you want to get max quality with a particular recipe. The majority of the recipes are implemented, but a couple of the embellished pieces aren’t implemented. Please look for them to be fully functional in the near future! Developer’s note: None of the effects have been tuned yet. Values related to stats bonuses, damage, or healing are very likely to change as the Alpha moves forward. The majority of specializations are implemented as well, except for a couple of sub-specializations within the Learned Leatherworker tree. Some of the specializations include: Learned Leatherworker Master your Leatherworking fundamentals to increase your reagent efficiency, ability to Concentrate, general stitchwork, and production process. This specialization tree is all about increasing your secondary crafting stats and increasing the efficacy of their effects. Flawless Fortes Master the techniques of Khaz Algar to craft specialty items beyond that of standard armor. This specialization tree focuses on improving your crafting capabilities for embellished armor pieces, reagents, armor kits, and profession gear. QUESTS
      The War Within campaign chapters and local stories. USER INTERFACE AND ACCESSIBILITY
      Spellbook has been redesigned and moved to the same window as Talents and Specializations. Professions now has its own micromenu button. Mount Journal now has a button called Switch Flight Style that lets you switch between steady flight (normal flying) and Dynamic Flight. NEW OPTIONS Option to replace spiders with alternative creatures. This doesn’t affect gameplay or difficulty. Option under Accessibility > General > Arachnophobia Mode. Icon can be used to mark your player character for visibility. Option under Accessibility > General > Self Highlight. Highlight your character’s silhouette when blocked by objects in game. Option under Gameplay > Combat > Show Silhouette when Obstructed. OBJECTIVE TRACKER Updated Objective Tracker art. Minimize settings are now on a new top level quest tracker header. New animations on headers and objectives. Icons for in progress quests have been updated. Objective Tracker text size can be adjusted with Edit Mode. Developer’s note: This will only apply for headers and most text lines in the tracker. Added new 3D quest bangs and icons: Meta quests Repeatable quests Campaign trivial quests Flight map icons have been updated. Flightmaster icon and bang has been updated.
    • By Staff
      Warbands are pretty great and solve a lot of issues players have had in previous expansions, but "just" making most things account-wide and offering a separate bank, among other things, wasn't enough! 
      As MrGM found out, there's a new set of achievements aimed at helping players with alts, as each character you get to level 80 (the new maximum in the expansion) will give you a 5% experience boost for the next characters you level. The  Warband Mentors: The War Within set of achievements even stacks up to 5 times, so each subsequent character you get to 80 will increase the buff, all the way to 25%! The buff is Warband-wide, so any character you level after that will get the buff.

      Making it easier to level alts is always a welcome change, and this is really making us love Warbands even more! 
    • By Staff
      Here's another nice addition to the game coming in the new expansion, with some really interesting mole mounts being added! Keyboardturn found all their variations and their mount special animations as well, so let's take a look. 
      And here's the mount special:

      Unfortunately ground mounts are getting very out-classed with the Dynamic Riding feature, but we're still hoping for that rumored dynamic ground mounts feature! Perhaps these could dig down and move below ground?
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